and, to be revenged on the Exorcift, mortifies him with an introduction of feveral perfons eminent in an accomplishment he has made fome advances in.

Nor is the compliment lefs to any great genius mentioned there; fince a very fiend, who naturally repines at any excellency, is forced to confefs how happily they have all fucceeded,

Their next objection is, that I have imitated the Lu trin of Monfieur Boileau. I must own, I am proud of the imputation; unless their quarrel be, that I have not done it enough: but he that will give himself the trouble of examining, will find I have copied him in nothing but in two or three lines in the complaint of Moleffe, Canto II. and in one in his firit Canto; the fenfe of which line is entirely his, and I could wish it were not the only good one in mine.

I have spoke to the moft material objections I have heard of, and fhall tell these gentlemen, that for every fault they pretend to find in this poem, I will undertake to fhew them two. One of these curious perfons does me the honour to fay, he approves of the conclufion of it; but I suppose it is upon no other reason, but because it is the conclufion. However, I fhould not be much concerned not to be thought excellent in an amufement I have very little practifed hitherto, nor perhaps ever fhall again.

Reputation of this fort is very hard to be got, and very easy to be loft; its purfuit is painful, and its poffeffion unfruitful; nor had I ever attempted any thing in this kind, till finding the animofities among the Men bers

Members of the College of Phyficians increafing daily (notwithstanding the frequent exhortations of our worthy Prefident to the contrary) I was perfuaded to attempt fomething of this nature, and to endeavour to railly fome of our difaffected Members into a fenfe of their duty, who have hitherto moft obftinately oppofed all manner of union; and have continued fo unreafonably refractory, that it was thought fit by the College, to reinforce the obfervance of the ftatutes by a bond, which fome of them would not comply with, though none of them had refused the ceremony of the cuftomary oath; like fome that will trust their wives with any body, but their money with none. I was forry to find there could be any constitution that was not to be cured without poifon, and that there should be a profpect of effecting it by a lefs grateful method than reason and perfuafion.

The original of this difference has been of some ftanding, though it did not break out to fury and excefs, until the time of erecting the Difpenfary, being an apartment in the college, fet up for the relief of the fick poor, and managed ever fince with an integrity and difintereft, fuitable to fo charitable a defign.

If any person would be more fully informed about the particulars of fo pious a work, I refer him to a Treatise, fet forth by the authority of the Prefident and Cenfors, in the year 97. It is called, "A fhort Account of the Proceedings of the College of Phyficians, London, in "relation to the fick Poor." The reader may there not only be informed of the rife and progrefs of this fo public an undertaking, but also of the concurrence and encouragement

B

encouragement it met with from the moft, as well as the most ancient Members of the Society, notwithstanding the vigorous oppofition of a few men, who thought it their intereft to defeat fo laudable a defign.

The intention of this preface is not to perfuade mankind to enter into our quarrels, but to vindicate the author from being cenfured of taking any indecent liberty with a faculty he has the honour to be a member of. If the fatire may appear directed at any particular perfon, it is at fuch only as are prefumed to be engaged in difhonourable confederacies for mean and mercenary ends, against the dignity of their own profeffion. But if there be no fuch, then these characters are but imaginary, and by confequence ought to give nobody offence..

The defcription of the battle is grounded upon a feud that happened in the Difpenfary, betwixt a member of the College with his retinue, and fome of the fervants that attended there to difpenfe the medicines; and is fo far real, though the poetical relation be fictitious. I hope nobody will think the author too undecently reflecting through the whole, who, being too liable to faults himself, ought to be lefs fevere upon the mifcarriages of others. There is a character in this trivial performance, which the town, I find, applies to a particular perfon: it is a reflection which I fhould be forry fhould give offence; being no more than what may be faid of any phyfician 'remarkable for much practice. The killing of numbers of patients is fo trite a piece of raillery, that it ought not to make the leaft impreffion, either upon the reader, or the person it is applied to; being one that I think in my

confcience

confcience a very able phyfician, as well as a gentleman of extraordinary learning. If I am hard upon any one, it is my reader: but fome worthy gentlemen, as remarkable for their humanity as their extraordinary parts, have taken care to make him amends for it, by prefixing fomething of their own.

I confefs, thofe ingenious gentlemen have done me a great honour; but while they defign an imaginary panegyric upon me, they have made a real one upon themfelves; and by faying how much this fmall performance exceeds fome others, they convince the world how far it falls fhort of theirs.

THE

THE

COPY OF AN

INSTRUMENT

Subscribed by the Prefident, Cenfor, most of the Elects, Senior Fellows, Candidates, &c. of the COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, in

WHEE

relation to the SICK POOR.

HEREAS the feveral orders of the College of Phyficians, London, for prefcribing medicines gratis to the poor fick of the cities of London and Westminster, and parts adjacent; as alfo propofals made by the faid College to the Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen, and Common Council, of London, in purfuance thereof; have hitherto been ineffectual, for that no method hath been taken to furnish the poor with medicines for their cure at low and reasonable rates; we therefore whofe names are here under-written, fellows and members of the faid College, being willing effectually to promote fo great a charity, by the counsel and good-liking of the Prefident and College declared in their Comitia, hereby (to wit, each of us feverally and apart, and not the one for the other of us) do oblige ourselves to pay to Dr. Thomas Burwell, fellow and elect of the faid College, the fum of ten pounds apiece of lawful money of England, by fuch proportions, and at such times, as to the major part of the fubfcribers here fhall feem moft convenient: which money, when received by the faid Dr. Thomas Burwell,